Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People

People
on the Move

N°
101 (Suppl.), August 2006

Vatican Radio Interview

with Archbishop Agostino Marchetto

The XVII Plenary Session of the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral
Care of Migrants and Itinerant People will meet from May 15-17, 2006 on
the theme: “Migration and Itinerancy From and Towards the Countries with
an Islamic Majority”.

Q. Why has this theme been chosen?

A. The phenomenon of emigration (for economic reasons or for study, or also
because of force) is a sign of the times – as stated in the Holy Father’s
Message for the World Day of Migrants and Refugees this year – to which our
Instruction Erga migrantes caritas Christi (EMCC), approved by John Paul
II on May 1, 2004, gave an ecclesial response and updated the related pastoral
care.

As a result, more than ever, for us this is the time for dialogue with other
religions, the ones of migrants, a dialogue that is surely not opposed to the
new evangelization to which John Paul II often called us. This question is
dealt with extensively in EMCC (Nos. 59-69), which pays special attention
to the Muslim migrants (Nos. 65-68 and also 61-64). It cannot be forgotten,
however, that many Christians, for migration or itinerancy (the other field of
the concern given to us by the Supreme Pontiff), also land on the shores of the
Land of Islam. So this is the reason for the wording of the theme,
“Migration and Itinerancy From and Towards the Countries with an
Islamic Majority”.

Q. Who will take part in the meeting?

A. It’s easier said than done: the Members and Consultors of our Pontifical
Council, with a group of international experts from around the world, in all
about sixty people, in addition to the Superiors and Officials of the Dicastery
led by our new President, His Eminence Cardinal Renato Raffaele Martino. Our
reflection, dialogue and prayers will be crowned with the Audience the Holy
Father will grant us, from whom we will receive “a divine sign for a new
path” that is surely in continuity with what the Second Vatican Council
indicated regarding the specific pastoral care of human mobility, which is
alongside the territorial, parish and ordinary pastoral care. And integration
between the two is also necessary.

Q. You mentioned experts: who are they?

A. If we may begin with ourselves, His Eminence Cardinal Martino will present
the theme of the Plenary as it results from the recent documents and congresses
of our Pontifical Council. I will explain the Dicastery’s thinking, work and
changes since the last “Plenary”. The well-known Father Maurice Borrmans, M.
Afr., will outline the general situation regarding the life of Christians in the
countries with an Islamic majority. This will be followed by another
presentation of the general situation of Islamic-Christian dialogue by His
Excellency Pier Luigi Celata, the Secretary of the Pontifical Council for
Interreligious Dialogue.

Two other fundamental interventions will be made by the Most Rev. Giovanni
Lajolo, the Secretary for Relations with the States in the Secretariat of State,
and His Excellency Robert Sarah, the Secretary of the Congregation for the
Evangelization of Peoples. They will present the prospects for improving
the situation, respectively from an overall view, and from the African
viewpoint, which we have very much at heart.

Of course, there will also be room for questions, proposals, observations,
let’s say various matters.

Q. Will there also be interventions in the various specific sectors
of human mobility?

A. Of course. We have planned for the two sub-themes – “Migration and
Itinerancy from the Countries with an Islamic majority” and “towards
the same countries” – to be presented by “experts” in the field, in
correspondence, we might say, with our sectors of migrants, refugees, foreign
students, nomads and circus people, the apostleship of the sea, the pastoral
care of the road and civil aviation (airports), and of tourism and pilgrimages.
So I think that the Plenary will be of great interest, and not only for the
“insiders”, because of its worldwide perspective on a theme that is
certainly very current.